“Trapped! I wrapped Kiera on the outside of my jacket instead of inside my jacket today because of the nice weather. Now I don’t want to wake her so am trapped wearing my coat inside. It’s getting a little warm… “

This cracked me up because it made me remember all the crazy things Michael and I did to keep our babies asleep. Misha didn’t transfer well so we would drive around the neighborhood or just sit in the car with her until she woke up. If she happened to fall asleep in our arms, we were stuck holding her for the length of the nap. If Jamie fell asleep holding my finger I would have to wait until she was in deep REM before I could move. The last thing we ever wanted to do was wake the baby.

But my niece’s post also got me thinking about that dilemma in general. I feel like it’s something that can really split a room. I was told NEVER to wake a sleeping baby. Obviously there are exceptions to this but generally it’s the golden rule. But if you are a worry wart parent like I was, that’s a hard rule to follow. The first time my daughter slept over five hours I panicked and insisted on waking her up to make sure she was okay. (She was)

After that we were so concerned about something happening to her in her sleep (SIDS is no joke and one of my worst fears as a mother) that we bought a sensor pad to put in her crib. If her heart should stop beating during the night an alarm would go off in our room. On the first night, at 11:37, it went off like a siren and I broke the speed of light getting to her. There she was in a corner of the crib having wriggled off the sensor pad and sleeping peacefully. We got rid of it the next day. My heart couldn’t take another false alarm.

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8 Responses to Do you wake your sleeping baby?

Jessicasays:

April 11, 2014 at 6:29 am

As a general rule I try not to. All of our kiddos were good sleepers though, with a clear pattern and preference on where to nap. On the odd time they fell asleep on me or in the car, I felt no compunction getting them up because I knew they would go back to sleep again when they were tired enough. Normally by then we would be back to their preferred environment, aka their cribs, so they could nap properly. When they were wee little they could all sleep through a bomb going off, so transferring them after they fell asleep was never an issue – I could have them fall asleep on me or in a carrier and shift them gently to crib or swing and they would snooze away like nothing changed And yes, I know how lucky we are…I swear that we would not be expecting our fourth if any one of them had not slept well! The next in line possibly wouldn’t have happened

AKMsays:

April 11, 2014 at 6:53 am

Unfortunately I woke my daughter up every 3 hours at night to nurse (at first). I was about 24 hours post-partum from an emergency C Section (and she was my first) and the lactation consultants told me that if I didn’t wake her up every 3 hours to eat she’d die in her sleep from malnutrition…Not knowing any better I did that. I also cite this as the reason why we only stuck with breast feeding for a month – of course she wouldn’t eat if she didn’t want to wake up every 3 hours!

After that was over, I let her sleep as long as she wanted whenever she wanted and she was a great sleeper luckily. I think she would have been sleeping practically through the night almost immediately had I not received that terrible advice!

Jensays:

April 11, 2014 at 7:20 am

i laughed when i saw the title of this- i was also told with my first to wake him every 2-3 hrs to feed and that the only reason babies sleep longer as newborns was bc “their blood sugars are so low from not eating they are getting malnutirtion and suffer” so of course we woke him to nurse every 2-3 hrs… and i will not ever do that again with the one currently cooking! Bc that habbit lasted for the whole first yr of life! it was horrible, it only stopped when i stopped nursing him a little after he turned 1. And i should say, he never wanted dad during those late night feedings, only mom would do….endearing and yet so entirely frustrating

Melissa Willetssays:

April 11, 2014 at 7:49 am

I totally woke my baby to get her on an established feeding/sleeping schedule. From day one!

WyattsMomsays:

April 11, 2014 at 7:58 am

I only woke my son to nurse a week after his birth cause he had lost too much weight and my LC was concerned and we realized that the hospital LC didn’t recognize his latch was completely off which threw my supply down. But once he regained that weight he woke up on his own every 2-4 hrs to nurse on his own, he was, is, & always has been a bad sleeper. So other than that if he was sleeping I would do whatever it took to make sure he stayed that way and never wake him!

Emmasays:

April 11, 2014 at 8:07 am

I tried not too! And threatened anyone under penalty of having to soothe her! Not really, but we definitely tried to let her sleep until she woke up on her own. We had one of those baby lounge chairs that kinda bounce when they move or you can turn on the vibration motion. She loved being in that thing, and it was a necessity b/c with acid reflux I learned real quick she needed to be slightly elevated for a while after eating. She would fall asleep in that chair all the time and my mom would always ask if she needed to be moved. But I knew if I moved her she would wake up so I’d wait at least 30 min’s into her nap to transfer her to the crib. We were fortunate she really was a good sleeper in no way thanks to anything we did.

My first lost a lot of weight and my milk was slow to come in so I was also told the wake every 2-3 hours. Once we got back on track she got RSV at three weeks old. She would not wake to eat and would fall back to sleep nursing. We were told to try every two hours. I was pumping with a hand pump because she drank from the bottle better. She ended up in the hospital. She gained less than a pound that first month.

She never transferred out of the car. But my son who just turned three still does. I love it! But I try to never wake a sleeping baby or toddler.

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